Yogurt Shop Murders - 30 Years Later /// Part 1 /// 539 | Forensic Files

so [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
listening i'm your host nick and with me as always is a man that's living life by
the drop ladies and gentlemen here is the captain that's right and you know i like to drop it like it's hot it's good
to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend this week we are very excited to be
drinking best made sour pickled beer brewed in the big beautiful state of texas by the brilliant brewers and crew
over at martin house brewing company captain this week's case takes us back to texas austin texas once again and
when we were in austin several fine wonderful listeners said to us hey while you guys are here you have to try best
made sour pickled beer from martin house and these fantastic people were spot on
it's not really sour well no more sour than pickle juice would be you get a refreshing burst of pickle taste that
has kind of an ale or pilsner finish garage grade this one's for the people four and a half bottle caps out of five
and here's to our friends that filled up the fridge for us this week first up a shout out to kim and brie in splendora
texas and a big we like your jib to brook and hilliard ohio and here's a long distance cheers to stacy in renton
washington she's thanking us for helping her through quarantine quarantine more like boring teen and a big shout
out to tasha in good old wisconsin next we have rebecca in pompton lakes new jersey and last but certainly not least
we have a very big cheers and thanks that goes out to longtime friend of the show paula m everyone we just mentioned
they went to truecrimegarage.com and clicked on the donate button and for that we thank you yeah say it with me
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truecrimegarage.com and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer
let's talk some true crime [Music] in the early 1990s several unforgettable billboards were
popping up in and around austin texas these billboards were not put up with the purpose
of advertising for a great restaurant located at the next exit off of texas highway 130. these
billboards didn't stare at the passing cars to influence your next cable provider choice
the only purpose for these unforgettable billboards screamed their mission loud and clear
with bold white letters all in caps set on a red background who killed these girls
this was the question on the minds of every red-blooded texan possibly minus one two or who knows how
many for sure because somewhere maybe in the lone star state or across state lines
maybe even south of the border someone or someone's know the answer to that question
who killed these girls the question posted on the billboards centered just below
what looks to be four school photos the pictures are of amy ayers jennifer harbison
sarah harbison and eliza thomas these are the four victims of an infamous crime known as the yogurt shop
murders the four girls ranged in age from 13 to 17. the yogurt shop murders are a still
unsolved quadruple homicide taking place at the local i can't believe it's yogurt
shop on a friday night in austin texas the crimes committed that night were many they were fast and they were brutal
these girls were killed on december 6 1991. the unknown assailant or assailants started a fire in the stockroom of the
yogurt shop before fleeing into the night an on-duty patrolman noticed the fire it
was close to midnight he rushed to the smoke coming from the i can't believe it's yogurt located in a
strip plaza 2949 west anderson lane he called it into dispatch firefighters arrived on the scene and
began knocking the fire down once they entered the small northwest austin yogurt shop
one firefighter motioned to the other pointing to a charred foot and then they started finding bodies
austin police were called and the lone homicide detective working that night got the call that no one wants to
receive even the most seasoned of detectives two fatalities suspected arson suspected
homicide looks like gunshot wounds the dispatcher called out over the police radio
apd sergeant john jones was in route minutes later the dispatcher tells jones they found another body and as he drives
closer a cop at the scene radioed jonesy make that four on the scene jones got to work
the following is from the 2016 beverly lowry book titled who killed these girls ignoring the firefighters who either
milled around or just stood there looking down jones stepped gingerly around the bodies
having been schooled in evidence collection and processing he felt competent to handle 95 percent of most
crime scenes but this one lie well beyond his expertise in a memo to the district attorney's
office he will describe the situation as robbery plus sexual assault plus multiple child victims
plus bondage plus gunshot wounds plus fire heat smoke water damage plus no known witnesses
equal the homicide arson and da's worst nightmare this is true crime garage and this is a new look at the yogurt
shop murders case 30 years later [Music] later this week will mark 30 years since
some kind of monster or monsters committed the horrific yogurt shop murders and the austin police department
and the fbi are still on the hunt for those responsible some of the following was taken from a recent reporting
texas.com article the four teenage girls were brutally murdered on a friday night
at a yoga shop in north austin in december of 1991. the girls families and those who worked decades trying to find
and prosecute their killers say the 30th anniversary of their murders approaches
with no sense of closure the murders remain unsolved and experts say that crimes lacking resolution can leave a
psychological impact on an entire community but new state and federal efforts as well as a promising dna lead
have brought renewed hope for answers and justice the details of the crime including the
subsequent investigation and criminal trials that followed have been well documented jennifer harbison and eliza
thomas both 17 worked at the i can't believe it's yogurt on west anderson lane jennifer's sister sarah harbison 15 and
amy ayers 13 arrived at the yogurt shop around closing time on december 6 1991 with
plans to attend a sleepover together amy was an 8th grader at burnett middle school and the other
girls attended lanier high school they were shot in the head and gagged with their own clothes
their bodies were stacked on top of one another before being set on fire authorities arrested four suspects but
this was almost eight years later in october of 1999 only two of the four robert burns
springsteen and michael james scott stood trial and both were convicted springsteen received the death penalty
and scott got life in prison but the texas court of criminal appeals overturned their convictions ruling that
their confessions were improperly used against each other at trial springsteen and scott were released from prison and
prosecutors dismissed all charges against them in 2017 another potential breakthrough emerged an austin detective
submitted dna evidence found in one of the victims into a database that searches ystr dna samples a type of dna
profile that forensic investigators used to identify male relatives of suspects a match was found
the austin police department requested more information about the identity of the matching donor
but the fbi has refused to release any information saying a federal statute prohibits it
from disclosing identities of anonymous donors despite these hurdles the families have continued to work to
keep the case in the forefront their efforts have led to new crime fighting initiatives at the state and
federal levels quote when i heard there were over 19 000 unsolved homicides in texas i was
really taken aback by that and i think most people are when they hear that number
when you think about each of those cases there's a family associated with that said mindy montford who was the first
assistant district attorney for travis county and one of the prosecutors assigned to the yogurt shop murders case
for four years the yogurt shop murders led montford to work with texas attorney general ken paxton to form the state
cold case and missing persons unit on october 19th the unit will aid and support law
enforcement agencies across the state in the investigation and prosecution of unsolved cases montford serves as senior
counsel for the unit angie and sean ayers the brother of the youngest victim sit on its advisory committee the yogurt
shop victims families have been pushing to effect change on a national level in may of 2021 the bipartisan homicide
victims families rights act was reintroduced u.s representative mike mccall said
quote if a case has been cold for three years it gives the victims the right to petition the local district attorney to
re-examine the cold case and take another look at it it's very much empowering to the
families of the victims and particularly the case like the yogurt shop killings many remember the yogurt shop murders as
a defining moment in austin which was about half its current size and not yet a tech or tourist hub
the 30th anniversary of the yogurt shop murders brings up painful memories for those who've tried to solve the crime
austin police sergeant jon jones who was the lead investigator assigned to the case at the time of the murders
said quote there's no statute of limitations on murder then there shouldn't be any limitation on doing
what one can to try to get it solved and that sometimes means having to relive that pain
and answer questions my theory is if me talking about it to you or anybody else can jog somebody's memory out there to
perhaps get this thing solved then it's worth reliving that night the girls families believe that the case
will be solved and we here in the garage hope so as well we covered this case rather extensively
in early 2017 in true crime garage episodes 81 and 82. now you don't need to stop these
episodes and go back these episodes with this information and nick's research will stand on its own yeah just know
that this week's shows will be different from those episodes and they are there to listen to should you want to hear the
case as it were back in early 2017. then captain we gave a detailed description of the events and the facts
of the case followed by the arrest of four persons nearly eight years later two were convicted because they air
quotes here confessed and the two others saw their charges dropped due to a lack
of evidence rob springsteen and michael james scott as we said both went to prison rob sentenced to death michael to
life imprisonment they both confessed that they along with maurice pierce and forrest wilbourne went to rob the store
and killed all four girls the strange thing here is obvious the two that ended up with charges
dropped due to insufficient evidence did not confess yet if we were to believe that the confessions of the two that the
state convicted are correct well then all four are guilty of the yogurt shop murders so to me captain i've always
felt like this should be an all or nothing situation for these four suspects absolutely it's
almost as if the prosecution didn't believe law enforcement's confessions that they received
now when we covered the case we spent a lot of time covering the case against these four individuals the two trials
and later their release we won't spend a lot of time on that this time around we
also covered some other good suspects and spent a lot of time on what is most likely the best theory out there so as
you can see this is a rather large case not a short true crime story at all and captain i like the cut of our jib
because i think those episodes were really well done and we told as much of the story as you can in just two
episodes and now as we are approaching the 30-year marker well this is a really good time to
revisit the yogurt shop let's dive into the facts of this case and the timeline that goes with it we're going to include
some angles theories and leads that perhaps were not pursued as doggedly as the four men that were arrested who were
just teenagers themselves at the time of the murders yes but first some background information bryce foods is
the company that owns the icby store i can't believe it's yogurt store and they own dozens of them bryce foods by 1991
had been in business for 14 years and the bryce foods firm was started by brother and sister bill and julie bryce
from dallas in 1977 bryce foods purchased existing yogurt shops i'm not sure captain if this location is one of
their original stores as said they owned many this location though we know that by 1991 has been around for years and
only two of the four girls that were killed worked there one of the victims 17 year old eliza thomas started working
there in early 1991 it's either january or early february and her friend sarah harbison started
working there in july of 1991. the two were friends and they both attended the same high school well since we've been
doing this for five years it seems like every time around december when it starts and you start feeling that
christmas holiday there's a couple cases that always come to mind obviously the jonbenet ramsay case and then this case
happening on december 6 1991 at 6 30 pm eliza arrives home and is getting ready to make her drive to
the icby store she was there by 7 pm she worked the night before and was said that she had a
difficult shift that night before due to a prank phone call from her ex-boyfriend
roger carducci and one of his pals so at 7 pm eliza is replacing another employee
jorge barney is closing his store mind you this is like a shopping plaza so there we're going to reference some
other stores that are nearby throughout this case and timeline jorge barney is closing his store the
party house he's the owner of the store he's owned it for three months at this time he has a santa on the roof because
this is a you know the party house is where you're going to go to get decorations and things for party
planning and such and with the christmas holiday coming up he's got santa on the
roof and other decorations going on he walks three stores down to another store this is called mr gaddy's and he says
that he went there to get some pizza it's a pizza place from there he will take his pizza to go back to his store
in his office to eat and do some bookkeeping and watch some tv he's important because his office shares a
wall with the stockroom at the icby shop eliza once she arrives and she gets into
work she places her personal belongings in the store's office which is located in the back of the store in the area we
will refer to as the stock room this stock room is the room behind the sales counter which is located in the dining
room the stock room has a walk-in cooler two bathrooms one designated as men's and the other as ladies and the shops
small office in this back corner the office has a locked door and a floor safe there
is a back door to the shop which is located near the door to the office from my understanding captain
that back door to the store is locked via deadbolt and the manager has the only key to
this back door that's key to know because this back door is not used often when the manager with the key is not
there because this case is so perplexing it's been investigated by several detectives
and several crime shows so i will post all the pictures that i think are relevant to seeing the outside
of the building and there's also a couple diagrams of inside the building obviously we'll post those
on social media at true crime garage twitter facebook or even at the website and the
captain's really doing everybody a big service by doing that because i think it's important here as is in most cases
but in this case it's particularly important to understand the layout of this store because we will be talking
about the movements of not only suspects but our victims as well well anybody that's worked at a shop knows that you
have closing time duties that you start preparing even though customers are still in the
store so i think that becomes very important in this case yes we're going to want to keep an eye on several things
the events leading up to that closing time as well as those closing duties like you just pointed out as well as the
customers that are coming and going from the shop leading up to closing time now
after placing her personal belongings in the yogurt shop's locked office eliza will then return the office door
key to its designated location which is under the cash register later eliza thomas's personal belongings will
be found inside the locked office eliza at this point in our timeline captain she is going to be running the store by
herself until 8 pm this is when her shift mate jennifer harbison arrives for the closing shift
before arriving at the shop for her 8 pm shift jennifer harbison will drive her sister sarah age 15 and her friend amy
ayers age 13 to the north cross mall so they can hang out with some friends we should
also note for those not familiar with austin the north cross mall is relatively close to the yogurt shop i
believe it's less than one mile from the yogurt shop note their ages as well 13 and 15 right one of the parents would
later say that this was the first time that the two good friends were allowed to go to the mall by themselves
i think we all can look back and remember one of those days right captain when you're a young
teenager and maybe it's the first time that you and a friend are allowed to go somewhere without any type of adult
supervision and you're you're going to the location being driven by your friend's older brother or
older sister who's dropping you off it feels very adult-like right it feels very special to those at that time
and i'm sure that's how amy and sarah felt on this friday night yeah i remember being dropped off at the cinema
and being able to play a couple arcade games before we watched the movie but you're basically just going into a
building watching a movie and coming out it was more rare if they would let you walk
around and look at different multiple shops jennifer does everything that we just
said and then she arrives at the icby store just before her 8 pm shift she parks her vehicle next to eliza thomas's
vehicle eliza will be running the register and jennifer will be taking and filling orders
the store closes at 11 pm bryce foods the company has a pretty detailed closing procedures for the
employees and this is important here because of these closing duties and jennifer harbison's and eliza thomas's
work ethic we will get a really good idea of when things went down and how things may have
gone down this is because everyone has stated that eliza and jennifer carried out the
closing duties to a tea completing each task in the very specific order designated by
the bryce foods company [Music] uh [Music] uh [Music] all right we're back [Music]
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yes cheers to you captain cheers all right colonel why don't you go through a list of the closing duties the yogurt
shop closes at 11 p.m so starting at 10 till 11 the person's working that night they
will lock the front door from the inside then they will change the sign from open to closed and they will leave
the key in the lock in the door this is done at this time regardless if there are any remaining customers in
the store or not then they would deposit the money in the floor safe that is in the locked office
and then clean up the store when the store is completely clean they would remove the key that's in the front
door leave through the front door then they would lock the door from the outside place the key inside of an
envelope and then slide that envelope under the front door the manager with a key to the store opens the store in the
morning and then retrieves the envelope and the key when they arrive let's get into some of the icby customer
testimonials and some of the events that we know happened that night we have customer
lucilla jones who arrives at the yogurt shop and says that when she entered the store
she noticed two teenage boys seated at the table nearest the door they were approximately between the ages of 14 and
17 and she says they had a sort of hippie look to them she describes one of them as being
between five foot four and five foot seven inches tall with medium dark hair 130 to 140 pounds possibly hispanic or
anglo she does not see the face of the other so no description of him is given other
than he looks to be older and larger than the other boy that she just described she would give three different
descriptions of the table throughout the course of the events there will be a trial in the last 30 years one of these
descriptions says that the boys were focusing in on something that may have been a paper bag
centered on the table another description that she gives says that she did not see any containers on the table
and then the third description says she did not have a clear view of the table itself she says that these boys gave her
an uneasy feeling and she didn't think that the boys fit the quote normal yogurt shop customers she orders a
yogurt and pays by check and then leaves the store now we are at 9pm here captain
this is when jennifer harbison leaves the yogurt shop she has to go back and pick up her sister sarah and her friend
amy from their visit to the mall when the three return sarah and amy walk over to mr gaddy's to
get some pizza the mall closed at 9pm and mr gaddy's closes at 10 pm so we are very confident with the times that are
provided here at 9 30 pm maria thomas eliza's mother arrives at the yogurt shop eliza takes a phone call
from her younger sister and at some point gives the phone to her mother amy and sarah then arrive at the yogurt
shop with their take out pizza shortly after this jennifer is going to receive a phone
call from her boyfriend sammy buchanan around the same time a man named daryl croft arrives at the yogurt shop
he puts his arrival time between 9 30 and 10 p.m he is traveling with two women who stay in croft's vehicle croft
goes into order to go desserts for all three of them he says that when he walks into the
yogurt shop he sees two girls working behind the counter maria again this is eliza's mother is standing
near the counter there's a man and a woman reviewing the menu standing in front of the counter
a young couple is seated at one of the booths on the right hand side of the dining room and there's a young man in a
green army type jacket this young man is near the counter and near the couple reviewing the menu right he later would
describe this young man as early to mid 20s medium build 150 to 170 pounds between 5 foot 10 and
6 foot tall and caucasian he says there was something off about this man there are two differing descriptions of what
this man says and does while in the store one in beverly lowry's book who killed
these girls and another in the book murdered innocents by corey mitchell both of these books are very thorough
and very good anyone that is fascinated by this case should read both of them but rather than ordering
the young man says to croft you go first and then there is this weird awkward exchange where the two men keep offering
to allow the other to go first you go first no you go first yeah oh i'm sorry you were here before me but it's
like andy and dwight in that episode where they just kept doing each other favors over and over again it's weird to
me that he has an uneasy feeling from this gentleman that's letting him go first
the guy in the army jacket is obviously not in a rush and obviously trying to be polite well i
think what we need to keep in mind here is we are reviewing all of these customers and their statements
after the fact and they're giving these statements to police after the murders occurred so
i'm thinking what we have here captain in most of these situations is people are going about their everyday lives
these are all very routine acts uh this daryl croft individual he was a regular at the yogurt shop a lot of the
customers coming in that night were regulars to this yogurt shop and so i think when you have regulars one they
seem to notice more that's going on because they're aware that you know this visit's a
little different than last one this time they're really busy this time they're not right
i don't think that most of these people are walking into the yogurt shop that night observing what's going on and
going oh something something terrible is here i feel i i sense a presence a bad element something's
broken i think that it's you know we know what happened and when i left or later that night or now that i know the
outcome now that i know that four girls were killed here i remember this guy something was off about him
something was weird about this guy and we're looking for somebody who killed four people
and so here is my information and daryl croft again he's a regular to the yogurt shop
he was a security guard at the time he owned a security company a lot of times these individuals will be
hyper vigilant they will be extra aware of their surroundings and take mental note right
of their surroundings so he to me can offer up possibly some better information than
maybe just the average jane or joe walking into the shop that night well he's coming in like you said between 9
30 and 10. so this is getting close to closing time my big issue is it's december 6th
yes i understand that it's in texas but it seems like there's quite a bit of pockets of people
seems like there's quite a bit of people towards the end of the day yeah so you're going to have this for
several reasons one it's a friday night and the yogurt shop is open till 11 p.m yeah good point so this is going to
offer up traffic to this store when other stores are closing for the night remember we already pointed out
that mr gaddy's the pizza place closes at 10. well the mall closes at nine mall closes at nine so we have customers that
are coming in maybe from mr gaddy's after pizza they want a little dessert they want the yogurt shop dessert maybe
people are leaving a movie we have several customers that we know went to movies at
night and decided to get a dessert on the way home a lot of these customers too you're going to see some stay there to
eat their frozen treats at the shop but also a lot of them are taking things to go they're going in placing their
order paying for them and they're leaving and that's what daryl croft was doing here that night i think
i have in my notes here and i can't remember where i got this from but i think that he
he and these other people they were they were either out that night and decided to stop for dessert or
he knew eliza thomas and eliza thomas's mother as well so that's interesting too that
he knows some of the people in the store when he's walking into it uh he knows them very very loosely
they're like acquaintances because they went to the same gym so daryl croft again a regular to the shop security
guard security company owner remember we said that there will be trials because we know that two
individuals were convicted in this case and later they were released but at the trial
croft testified that he visited the shop around 10 pm that night in line in front of him was a suspicious
looking man dressed in a green army jacket the man asked him about his security guard car
which was parked out front this is part of that weird exchange where this man sees crop's vehicle and
says you know what are you some kind of cop right which croft that kind of tickled
his spidey sense a little bit because he's like why is this guy so observant and paying so much
attention to me and my vehicle and my vehicle has these lights on it who is this kid to question me and so
the man asked him about his security guard card which was parked out front and then insisted that croft should cut
in front of him now finally crop said that the man slipped into the back headed to what he thought would be the
bathroom this is another reason why i think croft has a vivid memory of this guy he walks
into a busy yogurt shop sees all these customers and this is the only individual that
he's going to see go into the back room now remember the restrooms are back there so that's the assumption that
croft is going to make well also it seems like there's pairs of people and we don't
know if this army shirt or army jacket guy is connected to the couple that he was
closest to it almost seems like he's in there by himself yes everything that goes on would give the appearance that
this man is in there by himself so croft says that the man gave him such a funny
feeling that he decided to kind of stick around like linger a bit to see the man return from the back room
but eventually you know he's handed his three desserts that he's ordered he's paid he's made some chitchat tried to
hang out a little bit but eventually croft will leave now croft could not identify
the suspicious man he saw as being any of the four suspects that were later arrested
and two convicted that's quite interesting to me croft is sure that he was there at 10 pm
based off of his testimony and later when shown pictures of the four guys that were
arrested maurice michael robert and forrest again croft does not match the suspicious person to any of the four
now from the book who killed these girls croft says of green army jacket man his
voice was deep clear and distinctive and that he has a long pointy nose army jacket man then ordered a seven up
and eliza explains that they only have sprite and so he orders a sprite this before dipping into the back room
with the assumption that he went to the restroom right at 10 p.m james thomas this is eliza thomas's father stops by
the yogurt shop and says that he sees all four girls there in the store at that time is he stopping by just to
check in on his kids you know sometimes that happens where your parents just drop in on you at work when you're a
teenager or is he getting yogurt this i don't know i do know that both he and his wife stopped by that night his wife
was there just minutes before i think they're traveling separate and i don't know if james was in the process of
picking up eliza's younger sister who had called earlier that night i think that there was some chance here
captain that eliza's sister was going to find her way to the yogurt shop and maybe one of the parents or both of
the parents were going to retrieve her there but they very likely stopped in as customers
and to see their daughter at 10 42 p.m eliza thomas rings in the last purchase of the night okay underline that make
mental note don't forget 10 42 p.m eliza rings in the last purchase of the night
yeah 18 minutes before closing we have our customers names this is tim striker and margaret sheehan
they will later say that when they get there they notice only two other customers in the store so by this point
in our timeline right we have james thomas we have the security guard man daryl croft all these people have left
the store by this time by this point we have two coming in two customers coming in tim striker and margaret sheehan they
say that when they arrived in the store they only noticed two other customers in
the store at that time and they would later describe them as large people in hooded jackets sitting in the last booth
on the left this is the booth nearest the cash register they said that they saw eliza
behind the counter she's the one that took and fulfilled their order right and they see jennifer
cleaning the dining room she's wiping tables refilling napkin holders and placing chairs on the tables
margaret sheehan does not get a good look at these two customers the two that are described as large people and hooded
jackets i'm assuming they're just they have hoods on their jackets but their hoods are not up this description
i'm giving captain is the best one that i have found it's it's extremely vague and limited
but i actually think given some other things that i've seen along the way that that potentially they have these
hoods up that they're wearing the hoods because that's pretty suspicious so margaret sheehan does not get a good
look at these two customers in fact she says that she's not even certain of the gender for either but based off of their
size she believes that they were both males she says one was larger than the other
and the larger one was wearing a khaki or beige colored padded jacket the other man if it was a man the other
large person let's say was thinner with light brown hair she does not remember seeing any food
or drink or containers on the table where the two were sitting margaret says that she and tim left the
store and when they did she looked at her watch and it was 10 47 p.m so it took them five minutes to
place their order get their yogurt they sat down briefly and then decided to take their desserts with them but five
minutes being in a store with when there's only four individuals working and only two customers other than you
and your date that's a long time to get a perspective of what's happening and to
kind of sense what's going on with inside that shop that's right and note again the time she says was 10
47 p.m when they left we also have when it comes to a lot of these customers well
all of them anyone that ordered something and paid for something we will have the register tape later
that's going to kind of give us a timeline of some events as well but we don't know if these two large
individuals had any dessert with them or any all we know is that they're at a booth they're at a table it doesn't
mean that they're eating anything exactly in fact we have margaret who says one i didn't get a good look at him
right here's what i do remember and goes out of her way to say i don't remember seeing any food drink or
containers on their table well this would be like you said three minutes they're leaving three minutes before
they're going to go put that key in that door and lock the door yes again this is 10 47 pm and she says
that when she and tim left the two people sitting in the booth nearest the cash register
were still in the store margaret says when she arrived and when she left that she noticed a
green car in the parking lot this green car is a tricky little piece of information
as we don't know if this is a suspect vehicle right or a car with no real significance to the murders
at all yeah tricky little piece of [ __ ] or if it was one of the girls vehicles because we know that eliza
drove a bright green carmen gea right this is a pisser here captain and in my opinion a bit of a stumble in the
investigation because we can't say if this is a suspect car or eliza's or a vehicle that has nothing to
do with the murders at all well but maybe law enforcement knows and they just haven't shared that information
with the public this thing went to trial twice right there's that's your time to share
information with the public when you're going to sentence a man to death and another to life imprisonment let's lay
out the facts of the case yeah but they also charged two individuals that confessed that all four people were
involved and they only charged two people here's a stumble in the case in my opinion because if if we truly are
still on the hunt for the individuals responsible for these murders yeah this could be important information
again i don't think until we have somebody locked up in the proper person convicted
that we will know for certain if the suspect drove or suspect drove a or suspects drove a green vehicle that
night but the reason why i say that it's a stumble is we could at least eliminate one
possibility and one possibility is that it's eliza's bright green carmen gea a carmen gea is a unique looking vehicle
i would have shown margaret a picture of eliza's carmen gea and at the very least
try to confirm or rule out that as a possibility well i agree with you because that makes the most logical
sense now we don't know captain what happens in the next three minutes so our two customers
left at 10 47 they say that there are two male customers left in the store sitting at that booth nearest to the
cash register at the time that they left we don't know if these men left or if these men stayed there and are
responsible for the four murders what we do know is within the next hour that's six zero minutes
all four of the teenage girls will be killed yeah so for the next 60 minutes a lot of
horrible shit's going to happen one thing we don't know for certain but can assume based off of manager and
co-worker statements eliza and jennifer followed the closing procedures to a tee
and add to that equation that the two workers are teens right it's late on a friday night they're
going to want to get everything done and get out of there with the quickness so according to the closing duties the
girls would have at 10 till 11 o'clock locked the front door from the inside whether or not the store was void of
customers and then flipped the sign from open to close and then continued with their closing duties now our customers
that left at 1047 did not say that they saw the two younger girls they only said that they saw the two
older girls that were working at the shop that night it's presumed that amy and sarah went to the back room
we assumed this for two reasons one it was understood that sarah would be helping her older sister with the
closing duties that night in exchange for jennifer driving her and amy around amy was scheduled to ride home with the
harbison sisters and stay the night at their house that night the second reason is later at the crime
scene the mr gaddy's pizza box is found in the back room at 11 03 p.m a no sale was rang in on the register
anyone who has worked to register is familiar with the no sale key you push it and it logs a no sale on the register
tape and then the register drawer opens up so this would be recorded on the register and as we said when we covered
this case four years ago it's believed that this may be the start of the robbery and the start of the horrible
events to come well there's a lot of evidence where we could go through and talk about what we think could have
happened but let's go through some more events that we know for sure happen okay at 11
47 p.m rookie austin pd officer troy gay reports seeing smoke coming from the rear of the icby store
at 11 53 the first truck arrives from the austin fire department the response time note is six minutes which is longer
than normal here but at first it looks like they were going to the wrong address and then the address was
corrected on the call while in route one minute later a second fire engine and then at 11 57 pm another fire engine
arrives in total captain we're gonna have nearly 50 firefighters on scene that will
respond to this call yeah later when the bodies are found they will also find jennifer harbison's timex
watch not on her she took this off when she and the others were ordered to strip by their
killers her watch stopped marking the time at 11 48 pm when the watch quit working because of
the fire now some other things were found as well that helped to fill in the blanks for us as to what actually
happened from 1103 to the time that the firefighters are on the scene so a couple of things here
captain one someone started to clean out the yogurt dispensers but did not finish
one of the girls was wiping the counter but did not finish right a can of coca-cola and a cup of ice
is later found on the counter the booth where margaret sheehan says the two men were sitting when she and
tim striker left the yogurt shop at 10 47 pm is the only table in the store's front
of the house that does not have a chair on it the chair is the universal signal that the table has been cleaned stocked
and closed yes this table has an empty napkin holder the other tables have napkin holders that have been
filled well that tells us something though right the other tables have been cleaned restocked and closed so maybe
not a hundred percent but that could mean that these individuals were still in the shop when the other duties were
stopped possibly it tells us it tells us this that those three items are all things that should have been completed
if they were able to finish their closing duties right so whatever happened however it happened
it took place before these three items could be closed out for the night the yogurt dispensers were not finished
being cleaned the counter was not finished being wiped down and that table was not closed out for the night
indicating either they didn't get to that table or as you said somebody was sitting there which prevented them from
getting to the table the fifth thing that i want to point out here is that the register drawer
was found open and the till removed the till was found on the floor in the back room next to amy ayers body how much
money was taken money taken is an interesting question because when reviewing this case
and reviewing the way that it was handled the investigation was handled it looks to me
like robbery was the genesis of everything to come that's what they are telling us they
being law enforcement and they being the investigators that have worked this case
from jump street to me i see something very different i see a situation where money was
involved and part of the crimes committed but i don't know if it's the genesis i
don't know if it's where this whole attack and the whole nightmare began because when i'm looking at a picture of
the crime scene it says next to the picture police discovered this register both open and
empty with an open bag containing money underneath so directly under the cash register visible to the naked eye
is a bag that contains money that's just sitting there it's still sitting there the next day
while investigators are going through the crime scene right now one item that's also in the
cash register that's visible again the register drawer is open the till has been removed they will find the till
along with scattered change next to the body of amy ayers in the stockroom but you can see a check that's still
sitting in the register anybody that's operated a register knows that there are certain items that you do not put in the
till you put them underneath the till but inside the register drawer things get really complicated here
because i wouldn't expect a person in a robbery to want to grab a check take the check with them
and then later have to cash it somewhere especially when we know that the check is for a small amount this was a
customer check somebody that paid for their yogurt that night using a check didn't you say that one lady paid for
her yogurt her and her dates yogurt correct so there's checks left behind there was also a bag of money underneath
the cash register that was not even touched they did take some money and i have in my notes here and i don't know
where this information came from i was trying to track this down last night so i want everybody to take this with a
grain of salt but i have in my notes that 540 dollars is what was determined to be missing
from that night again though one thing that this tells me is either cash is not the main
concern for the offenders or they didn't go around to the back of the counter because this bag of money and i don't
know how much money is in it but there's paper money that's visible at the top of
this bag they didn't bother to take that so either they didn't see it by going around to the back of the counter
or money was not the main concern for them yeah i agree later the detectives would review the closing duties with
bryce foods company and this is important here because as we said it's clear that they were not finished
closing for the night the door may have been locked the sales may have been done for the day
but the girls were still working when whatever happened went down now bryce foods is not trying to sway any
type of opinion they're just simply trying to offer up an alternative here and one being that the no sale button
being pushed at 1103 may not have been the start of the robbery but could simply have been the start of
one of the girls closing out the register another thing that they offered up was
that the coca-cola can and the cup of ice found on the counter could have belonged to one of the girls that after
closing for the night they decided to get themselves a drink and set this down on the counter
and then things got bad from there right i appreciate the additional information
and the thoroughness of bryce foods and their involvement in the investigation but
the problem with those two thoughts are a couple of things we already mentioned the yogurt
dispensers someone started cleaning them out but did not finish we also mentioned
the counter somebody was wiping down the counter but did not finish this to me indicates that we got two
girls working two girls trying to complete these closing duties and both of them are interrupted
simultaneously so i think we have a situation where very likely the 1103 pressing of the no sale key is probably
the start of the robbery and this probably took place shortly after one individual
orders a coca-cola and a cup of ice sets it down on the counter girl turns around gun in the face open up the
register this is a robbery right from there they're probably going to usher all of the girls into the back
and i say probably because we do not know we do not know the point of entry for the attackers
because at this point we have three possibilities one would be the front door however the
front door is locked so we can go ahead and cross that one out but if our killers came through the
front door that means they came through that front door before the girls locked it at 10 until 11 that night and that
means it was the two guys sitting in the booth or the state's case against the four
guys that they would later arrest eight years later was that the killers came in through the
back of the house through that back door that robert springsteen at some point went into the shop
and wedged the back door open using i think it was a empty pack of cigarettes and in his confession states that he
jimmy rigged that door so that it would remain open that you could pull it open from the outside
gaining access to the store from the back but it was positioned in a way that persons from the inside it would not be
obvious to them that the door was not closed not latched not locked right this is still possible
however this begs the question well then why didn't the perpetrator take that bag of
money because now if you have our killers our attackers our robbers our robbers and we're told that the genesis
of everything that's about to happen starts from a planned robbery from these four
young men still boys at this time that they entered through the back with the main purpose of robbery and then
went to the front approached the girls and went to the register and started taking the till and money from the
register the problem with that is then why didn't they take that bag of money that was sitting underneath the register
i don't think the robbers slash killers ever saw that bag of money i think that the attack came from the other side of
the counter the girls were surprised and the girls were corralled into the back of the store to
where our killers then discovered two additional girls or knew that they were already back there well this crime could
have been committed by one individual two individuals or or possibly more i think sometimes people lean to the fact
that there was four attackers involved because we have four victims i would actually lean towards
less two individuals even possibly one because if that back door is locked if you're in if you're in that building be
before they lock that door with a weapon or with a gun you can easily control that situation
yes and there's evidence at the scene that will suggest that the number of attackers was either
two or three persons [Music] so much more to get to meet us back here in the garage tomorrow and until then be
good be kind and don't live [Applause] [Music] you

Yogurt Shop Murders - 30 Years Later /// Part 1 /// 539

Part 1 of 2

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This week we take a good solid look at a case that has weighed heavy on the hearts and minds of everyone in the Lone Star state’s capital city. The Austin Yogurt Shop Murders is one of most infamous cases in Texas history. Despite the efforts of the APD it remains unsolved thirty years later. Join us as we discuss the facts of the case and the timeline.

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved yogurt shop murders in Austin, Texas, focusing on the victims and ongoing efforts for justice.

Key points

The Yogurt Shop Murders. A look back at the infamous unsolved quadruple homicide that shocked Austin, Texas.
30 Years Later. The 30th anniversary of the yogurt shop murders brings renewed hope for answers.
Jennifer Harbison's Departure. Jennifer leaves the yogurt shop to pick up her sister and friend.
Daryl Croft's Suspicious Encounter. Daryl Croft notices a strange man in a green army jacket at the yogurt shop.
Final Customers Before Tragedy. Tim Striker and Margaret Sheehan are the last customers seen before the murders.
The Start of the Horrible Events. At 11:03 p.m., a no sale is rung in on the register, marking the beginning of a robbery and the tragic events that follow.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Who killed these girls?

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3:50WatchDec 4, 2021

Tension

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